Josh and I spoke today for a long period of time about religion and purpose. Josh (Jewish) wanted to prove the existence of God citing scripture from The Old Testament. He doesn’t know this, but it ironically led me to change from being an agnostic to atheist (although agnosticism is basically a cop-out/insurance policy for atheism).
Josh spoke about how the world was in shambles before The Old Testament. Jews believe that the introduction of this scripture led to the organization of contemporary society as we know it. Truthfully, Christianity is based in Judaism and the laws that govern The United States are based in Christianity, so… kinda true. But one thing didn’t hit right. I argued that Native American tribes and Aztecs had no influence of G-d, yet lived in a relatively organized society. Many served their own gods, religions that did not pass the test of time as Christianity expanded–first mover advantage wasn’t enough in this case. Religion served an important purpose. Religions are like any organization of people, they provide a set of rules to act as the glue of society, just like corporate bylaws, the U.S. Constitution, and Monopoly instructions. I argue they are all the same. Early rulebooks like Hammurabi’s code provide early guidance with the “eye for an eye” principle as a way to introduce justice. However, it was soon discovered that killing a man for killing a man leads to a disastrous society and replacements came that included empathy. Man is not inherently evil, they say. He can be saved, they say.
All religions serve the same purpose of prescribing that followers “do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.” This is the most important phrase of all. One day, man woke up and discovered with others that a mutual agreement to not kill each other and trade led to net mutual success. The reality is that there is no right or wrong, except for what we have been brainwashed and raised to believe. If you were raising a child, this phrase would work for most behavioral lessons. If you raised that same child in a society where people practiced hate and anger (*cough cough New York), asides from an assumed evolutionary selection for amiable genetics, they would see that as commonplace and grow up to enforce a culture of hatred and violence.
This phrase is a difficult thing to enforce as soon as an authority turns their back. An omnipotent God is the clear solution to finite oversight and authority of the mortal world. A God that can see all and judges accordingly. A God with the power to send you to everlasting paradise or suffering. This was enough to scare constituents into making their bed every morning.
In this sense, it is why the U.S. should be considered a religion, a strong culture of work and obedience enforced by the criminal justice system and culture where you need to work and make money to survive. It’s set up perfectly to engineer an efficient society and why it has led to great success. Communism is an organizational structure with faults in its support mechanisms. All religions face a fate of unraveling. Perhaps Christianity is seeing the beginning of that now. As there is a change in the world order, perhaps the U.S. will be seeing this fate against China. And then Bitcoin and decentralized society? And then artificial general intelligence” (the only omnipotence that can be proved in a theorem).
I predict that while religion may alter its form in the centuries to come, it will persist, whether in the form of legislature, gospel, or something my brain isn’t big enough to imagine at this point in time. Assuming government technology will exist that can maintain watch on its denizens and enforce authority, then there is the potential for mass control and infinite concentration of power. This was not a possibility of the past; however, assuming infinite technological advancement, this is not just possible, but eventual in the relatively near future. *side note, if this is the case, then a decentralized future is the only solution I can think of to 1984. Maybe I should go into defi?*
Or maybe I should make my own religion? Scientology was successful and it was built on an absolutely ridiculous foundation. Anyways, it’s pretty easy. All I need to do is write a long, infinitely wordy, ambiguously and flexibly interpreted book, which can be distilled into “do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.” Then I give it a God that is infinitely scary. Artificial general intelligence fits the script better than an “actual God” as it can mathematically be proven to be all-knowing, infinitely intelligent, and is generally considered to be inevitable in the near future. All men who submit will be allowed to live in riches and servitude. Those who will not, will not survive.
And I’ll name it…